(Thanks, T. :)
Reader T. writes (and I'll comment, following):
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Re: Reader: 'I don’t see how a gold standard i....
Hobie, I've got some issues with the whole idea of GESARA. How does debt forgiveness correct anything. The individuals who are owed that debt lose. The individuals that have responsibly managed their debt or have eliminated it themselves gain nothing. The credit abusers learn nothing and will only continue the behavior that buried them this time.
I don't give it 6 months before they are just as deeply in debt even if 3 zeros are dumped from the system. Those same 3 zeros are cut from their income, whether it be an honest job, EBT, welfare, whatever.
I promise you that on the supply side, companies are not going to take a 100 dollar price tag and drop it to 40 bucks. They might drop it to 55 and we are still screwed. Is some new PTB going to enforce new fairness doctrines? If so, then we really don't have a return to a Republic.
Former credit abusers going to be denied credit, or a severely reduced credit line? Again, no Republic. I remember the days before "revolving credit" replace simple interest. Now you know how old I am. You had to put a lot more than 10 per cent down to build a house or buy a car. It was called saving.
My wife and I did not rush out and buy the latest whatever to meet our daughter's social demand. She learned the simple principle of getting what you pay for. It took a few years but she got it.
That's how at 19 she completed 4 years for a college diploma, had a job, and spent 6 hours denying any contract offered her by a dealership to buy a new car and they finally caved and gave her the price she was willing to pay, which was scant dollars above their profit margin. To quote her, "I teach kindergarten children and say no all day long. When do you go home and the next guy is willing to say yes?" She got her deal and that was eleven years ago.
She is still driving that car, has faithfully maintained the car, and it still runs like the day it was made. She will probably be able to pass it down to her daughter, who is only five.
My point? Personal responsibility. "Freeing" someone from self imposed slavery without commensurate maturity in behavior is a total waste. Eighty to 120 thousand debt for a diploma you have no sweat equity in brings the biggest buzz kill when it finally lands on you and you face 10 to 12 years or more paying off that "free" ride to get that nearly worthless butt wipe document and have to learn to say "Do you want fries with that?"
I know how my daughter and her husband are going to feel having struggled to pay off nearly all his student loan debt. The same way my wife and I will feel having only the last half of a car debt and living in the house we paid for when supposedly everyone else in the neighborhood is dancing in the street cause they got a free house to go with their brand new Navigator. Just because the numbers are smaller for the new debt won't make any difference when the numbers are just as small or smaller for the income.
I just don't see this working over the long haul. T
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(hobie here. :) Generally speaking, I agree with you. :) But, here's the thing, I think: We've never known a time when debt-based fiat currency was _not_ "the only game in town". Consequently it's almost impossible for us to envision what the world would/will be like with "honest money" restored.
Meanwhile, we've taken a lot of things to be "just the way things are" that might not need to be that way at all. Ponder the nearly obscene idea of credit cards with APR of 21% or more. Consider the nearly unbelievable number of taxes Americans are subject to. Think about how it now appears to be necessary for both parents to work, and what effect that's having on children.
And then there are mortgages. :) There are pretty convincing explanations on Internet for how those work without the banker providing anything of substance whatsoever, but getting 30 years' worth of steady payments for his time and trouble. Similarly with credit cards: nothing of actual substance is being provided; the bank has no horse in the race but gathers "interest" all the same.
Ah, the wonders of debt-based fiat currency and fractional reserve banking, and the absolute miracle of "compound interest". :) And don't forget 'income tax'. And inflation.
I agree "personal responsibility" is important and should not lightly be swept aside. But I also see how a great many people might find themselves in dire straits, more or less unexpectedly, because of how all these things function together against them, added to the appearance that "this is how things are done".
The idea of a jubilee of debt-forgiveness - which we're hearing about but can't be sure is actually about to happen - can only be understood as part of a "leveling of the playing field" that includes the return to honest money and to Constitutionality in America with (hopefully) similar changes around the world.
Personally I haven't been able to envision how it would work. If we clear Joe's debt of $1000 owed to Charlie, what does that do to Charlie? Might be a lot, or might be nothing - after all, it's a thousand dollars Charlie is already making do without; and Charlie might have debts of his own, perhaps an as-yet-unpaid bill from a vendor/supplier, that is forgiven, too.
At the end of the day, I'll have to trust that, if this happens, it will be because people better able than I to understand how it will all turn out are the ones setting it in motion. :)
--hobie